1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to methods, non-transitory computer-readable media, and devices for controlling a user-interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various applications can run on devices having a central processing unit (CPU) such as mobile terminals including a mobile phone, a tablet computer, etc., a music playing device, and a laptop computer. On such applications, user-interfaces are provided, so as to receive instructions from a user and to provide information to a user.
Each of applications that runs on such a device as mentioned above is individually designed to achieve interaction between a user and a device in an individual manner by use of an individual user-interface. Needless to say, basic user-interfaces provided by an operating system are made uniform in many cases, with respect to applications that run on the same operating system. Furthermore, the same user-interface is often employed for a group of applications developed by the same company on the same design concept.
However, on a worldwide basis, there are multiple operating systems and, in the level of operating systems, there are various peripheral devices which are supported by each operating system. Therefore, even such basic user-interfaces may differ from each other, depending on operating systems. Furthermore, even among a group of applications developed by the same company on the same design concept, some may have user-interfaces which are partially different from each other. Furthermore, even the same applications in different versions may have different user-interfaces. Therefore, interaction between a user and a device can be different in many cases, depending on applications.
Furthermore, at the time of driving a car, etc., a user cannot use a mobile terminal in some cases, which causes a problem in manipulating an application.
Taking a case of zooming in a screen-display as an example, there are various types of instructions such as one performed through pinching out, one performed through double-clicking of a mouse, or one performed through rolling a wheel of a mouse, depending on applications.
That is to say, even for providing the same kind of instructions, a user is required to provide different operations in many cases, depending on applications. Moreover, while driving, for example, there are cases in which a user suffers from manipulation itself.
To attend to such cases, there a technique for replacing user operations performed through an interface with other operations.
For example, as related art, there is a device having a voice and/or manual user-interface for accessing functions of the device. The functions are accessible through a hierarchy of menus. The voice and/or manual user-interface enables short-cutting branches of the hierarchy of menus by means of a voice instruction, which is referred to as a voice short-cut. The device includes a unit for storing sequences of interaction performed by a user, a unit for detecting a voice short-cut corresponding to one of the sequences of interaction, and a unit for sending a message to the user, in a case of detecting a voice short-cut, in order to inform the user of existence of the voice short-cut (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-231398).
Furthermore, as related art, there is a user-interface for querying and displaying records from a database. According to the related art, user profiles are presented and manipulated to operate with queries in the same way as other criteria. For example, “implicit” profiles can be added to a query in the same manner as more typical preference profiles in which users incorporate their explicit preferences in the form of rules into a user profile (see, for example, Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. JP-T-2003-529154).
However, such techniques of replacing operations are intended for reducing trouble of a person who manipulates specific applications, by means of providing a shortcut, etc. Therefore, such conventional techniques require each application to be designed so as to operate in accordance with corresponding manipulations performed by a user.
As in the past, application developers are required to develop a user-interface per an application and users are required to learn how to manipulate each user-interface.
Therefore, in a variety of usage situations, accessibility of a user to various applications is desired to be enhanced.